Indefatigable NEU members fight for their jobs after Brent Council's decision to close the Strathcona site

Protest to save Roe Green infants-Strathcona jobs 4pm tonight Brent Civic Centre

Cllr Butt addresses staff and parents at an earlier demonstration against closure

Following the Brent Labour Cabinet's decision to go ahead with the closure of the Strathcona site of Roe Green Infants School the battle has now shifted to saving the jobs of school workers. The two sites are run as one school so everyone is affected by potential redundancy although Gail Tolley, Strategic Director, has said that she does not expect compulsory redundancies.

To ensure that jobs are not loss NEU members will be demonstrating outside Brent Civic Centre at 4pm today.

Gail Tolley told a meeting of Chairs and Vice Chairs of governors last week that at least two neighbouring boroughs were closing primary schools due to falling pupil numbers and several primary schools in Brent that had expanded with new build were now going to reduce their numbers by one form of entry.

BREAKING: Brent Scrutiny Committee asks Cabinet to reconsider its decision on Strathcona closure

Cllrs Chan and Kennelly with Jenny Cooper and staff after the meeting

There was jubilation tonight when the Community and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee, after hearing representations from Cllrs Jumbo Chan and Daniel Kennelly,  Jenny Cooper of the NEU, staff from the school and community supporters, decided to ask the Cabinet to reconsider its decision to close Roe Green Strathcona School and in particular to look at the proposals for additional provision at the school.


Jumbo Chan addresses school staff, union reps and supporters before the Scrutiny meeting

This does not mean that the school will definitely survive - Cabinet may decide additional provision is not required or will not be for the primary age group - but it is a significant victory for campaigners who were determined to put up a fight.

During the debate Gail Tolley, Strategic Director for Young People and Families, said that in the event of closure and because of the difficulties in recruiting teachers in the borough, she 'had no doubt we would be able to avoid compulsory redundancies.'

Opponents of the closure were infuriated when after detailed presentations by staff and supporters critiquing the evidence used by officers to justify closure rather than answering them the lead member just read from a typed manuscript prepared before the meeting.  He did not answer any of their points and this repeated behaviour in other meetings where he just read from the officer's report. The chair of the school's governing body's Finance Committee gave a detailed rebuttal of some of the financial information in the Cabinet report, others focused on pupil numbers, the failure of the local authority to publicise the school on its admissions website and the Headteacher revealed that the Council's own admissions department had stymied a parent's attempt to send her children to Strathcona because it would affect the school from which they were going to be transferred budget.

Fortunately Brent CEO Carolyn Downs intervened to summarise the questions and points raised and asked the Lead member, Strategic Director and Operational Director to respond and members of the Committee followed up with their own questions. There was a considerable amount of repetition on both sides but deficiencies in the process and evidence base  soon became clear.

Much will depend on the issue of Additional Provision. This is a proposal to site additional provision for primary special needs children on the Strathcona site alongside the mainstream provision. This would enable a degree of integration to take place to the benefit of both sets of pupils and enhance inclusion. Gail Tolley insisted that there was adequate provision for primary SEND children in the borough - in mainsteam schools, units attached to schools and the recently opened Avenue school which is due to expand. She said that the real need was for 16-25 year old provision and could be considered for the site. She made clear several times that such provision was completely separate from the survival of primary provision at the site.

Gail Tolley went on to reject other uses proposed by the school including a teacher training base for the borough, and a refugee resource centre. She suggested that there was not a need for a training centre as the Brent Schools Partnership already provided a service for the schools that bought into it. The borough Teachers Centre at what is now the  Leopold School annex was closed some years ago and BSP training takes place at a number of venues including the Crown Hotel in Cricklewood.

Brent Council nows faces further strikes as well as Call-in Scrutiny over Roe Green Strathcona closure decision

Encouraged by the support of Brent councillors who, as reported first here, have called-in the Cabinet's decision to close Strathcona School for further scrutiny, determined NEU members voted unanimously today to resume their strikes.

In the background both groups have been heartened by the support of Barry Gardiner MP who write to Brent Council back in July opposing the proposed closure LINK. This is a key section of his letter:

If council officers had actively been trying to prepare a case for the closure of the school, these are precisely the measures they might have taken. First ensure nobody knows about the place and even when they live next door, refer them to another school. In fact the head teacher has said that she has several reports of prospective parents who asked for their child to come to the school actually being told by council officers that the roll at Strathcona is full and they can take no more children. I would ask that the cabinet investigate these allegations which, if true, represent a serious breach of trust on the part of public officials.

Of course much of this might be more understandable were the school underperforming. In fact despite all the problems it has experienced, Roe Green Strathcona School is an excellent School, with their first cohort of Year 6 students achieving progress in the top 3% of Schools in England this academic year. This is particularly remarkable when one considers the extent of mid year admissions. In the public meeting held at Roe Green Strathcona on 6^th June 2019, which was attended by local councillors, many parents testified to the quality of teaching and the quality of pastoral care that the school provides.

Just 3 years ago Council officers made an urgent recommendation that Roe Green Strathcona School become permanent by September 2016. They are now trying to persuade councillors that the school is not viable. What was then a saving is now said to be a financial drain on the council. What was then required to cope with the primary admissions crisis is now said to be part of an unnecessary and unsustainable surplus. What was then said to provide parental choice into the future is now having its very existence airbrushed from the Council admissions website.

Teachers and staff at the Roe Green School are rightly proud of the progress that has been made since the creation of the Strathcona school five years ago. In a borough where children had been out of formal education for many months, the School has added significant value to the educational development of every child that has entered its classrooms. They have served the council well. If the cabinet were to rubber stamp the proposal to launch a formal consultation for the closure of the Strathcona School site. I believe they would be betraying that service and acting arbitrarily.

Brent Council did launch a formal consultation. In over 300 responses only one supported closure but the Cabinet have gone ahead with closure plans.  Brent North's Labour Party MP is rightly holding his Labour colleagues in the Brent Cabinet to account.

For the NEU this is a much wider issue than just Brent. It is the first attempt at urban school closures since the 70s and 80s when falling school rolls led to school closures and amalgamations and indirectly to some of the super-sized schools that we see today. Brent Labour Council is setting a precedent that if successful, other councils may follow. This is why it is important to win this particular battle.

Strathcona staff will strike on Monday as Brent Labour Cabinet meet to approve the school's closure

Extract from Cabinet Agenda LINK

From Brent National Education Union (NEU)

Roe Green Strathcona School will be closed by strike action on Monday 9^th September.  NEU members are on strike in an attempt to save their school from closure. Despite giving the go-ahead to several new free schools in the borough, Brent Council wish to close this successful local authority run school. 

Teachers and parents will protest outside Brent  Civic Centre from 3pm Monday and following this will lobby the Cabinet meeting which begins at 4pm in a bid to save the school. 

A handful of councillors support the action being taken by staff. Labour Councillor Jumbo Chan said today:

Under the current context of a decade-long assault on public education, Labour councils should be doing everything possible to retain and strengthen their local authority schools. It would be most unfortunate if the opposite approach were taken here in Brent. 

The council should listen to the 99.8% of teachers, parents and other members of the public who have formally expressed their opposition to the council’s proposals to abandon Roe Green Strathcona, and shelve their plans. A Labour Council should be supporting hardworking and loyal teachers, parents and students- including working with them properly to explore all alternatives- not casting them away. 

Mary Addosides, Chair of Brent Trades Council, representing the unions taking action, called on Brent Council to ‘Save Strathcona for the children of Brent; no job cuts or redundancies.’   

Wembley  Matters note:

In its report on the formal consultation Brent Council admit they received only one response that agreed with the closure proposal:

542 written responses were received by e-mail or post. The majority of respondents only indicated that they objected or disagreed with the proposals put forward by the council for the school organisation arrangements of Roe Green Infant School. One response indicated agreement with the proposals but gave no further comment. 

The Council’s response to those opposing the closure and to alternative proposals can be found HERE

Staff to strike over Strathcona school closure

From Brent National Education Union

Brent Council Cabinet voted on Monday to move to a Formal Consultation regarding the proposed closure of the Roe Green Strathcona site school. This was despite overwhelming opposition from staff, parents and the community to this during the informal consultation where a massive 463 written responses were received with only 3 in favour and 460 against (99.4%). A petition with 396 signatures opposing the closure was also delivered to the Council but was ignored too.

The Council also received an unprecedented letter from Brent North MP Barry Gardiner where he stated that there were so many flaws in the informal consultation that...

 If council officers had been actively trying to prepare a case for the closure of the school, these are precisely the measures they might have taken.

Brent National Education Union has highlighted the risks to staff jobs if Strathcona is closed – and they have conducted a ballot of their members for action which was overwhelmingly supported.  They are seeking an urgent meeting with Gail Tolley, Strategic Education Director, to try to resolve these concerns. Failing this NEU members will be on strike on 25^th June.

Lesley Gouldbourne, Brent NEU Secretary, said :

It is extraordinary and shameful that Brent is refusing to listen to parents, governors and staff at Strathcona - a school in the top 3% of the country. At the same time as it is preparing to close Strathcona because it says there are not enough pupils, it has given planning permission for ARK Sommerville - a primary Free School in Wembley- to open! You do wonder what is really behind this proposal.

Brent Councillor Jumbo Chan said:

 It is disappointing Brent Council is proposing to close a local school, thus ignoring both staff and parents. The fact that there may also be a new academy being opened compounds this disappointment. Brent Council should reconsider its decision, and seek a new alternative.

Informal consultation reveals strong support for Strathcona School but formal closure consultation to go ahead

A report going to the next Brent Cabinet meeting reveals overwhelming support for retention of the Strathcona school which the Council has earmarked for closure but recommends that Cabinet go ahead with formal consultation on closure:

RecommendationL Cabinet approves a period of formal consultation, through publication of a statutory notice, on proposals to:·change the age range of Roe Green Infant School from 3-11 to 3-7·reduce the school’s Published Admission Number (PAN) from 150 to 120 for September 2020·implement a phased closure of the provision on the Roe Green Infant School Strathcona site.

The Council's handling of population projection data and its competence at planning school places was questioned by respondents with many asking why the authority had created large 3-5 form entry schools. There are calls for the scrapping of the controversial new Ark primary school due to be built on the car park of York House on a busy road in Wembley Park.

The Council was criticised for not promoting the school enough and questioned as to why it was choosing to close high quality provision.

Concern was expressed oveer the impact of closure on individual pupils and their families.

Brent Council responded that the closure was due to falling demand and not about the quality of education.

Full Consultation Report (Click lower right square to enlarge)

Brent Council to consult on closure of Roe Green Strathcona School

Extravagant thanks to the staff of Roe Green Infants School for providing extra places for primary children over the last 6 years cut little ice at Cabinet on Monday when it was decided to consult on the phased closure of the Strathcona site in Wembley which has been run as part of Roe Green Infants under an Executive Headteacher.

Roe Green Infants had come to the aid of the local authority at a time of rising primary school rolls and agreed to run a 5-11 school on a separate site in Wembley.  They are now faced with making staff redundant and as the two sites are run as one school in terms of staffing this will affect both the Infants and Strathcona.

The report to Cabinet stated:

The proposals, if implemented, are likely to impact on the required staffing for Roe Green Infant School; the proposal would lead to a reduction in overall staffing levels which would, therefore, result in the possibility for the need to consider redundancies. The number of staff affected will depend on the nature of a phased closure. There may also be opportunities to reduce the impact on staff, for example, by transferring existing staff to the main Roe Green Infant School site. The school would need to follow the Managing Change in Schools policy and procedure including consultation with affected staff and trade unions to effect the changes in due course.

Gail Tolley, Strategic Director of Children and Young People, said that in 2015-2016 GLA projections had still indicated a rising roll in Brent's primary schools but migration, Brexit and statistical issues meant that projections for 2018-19 had been reduced. There had been a need for Strathcona at the time but it was no longer required as neighbouring schools could absorb the displaced pupils. The report gave the following figures. The key information is in Reception places comparing in the first column the number of available places (PAN - Planned Admission Number) and in the second the number of reception children actually in the school in  October 2018. It can be seen that some of the controversial expansions (see previous articles on this blog, ) created with considerable building costs, have not been successful in attracting pupils and that there are 208 spare places in Strathcona's local area. This is equivalent to a one form entry primary school.

Hidden behind the figures is of course the impact of an uncertain future on the school staff and upset for children and parents who will have to find a new school, depending on when the Strathcona site closes. This will be a matter for the consultation the Council will launch but they have said that new admissions will cease from 2020. 

Leader of the Council, Cllr Muhammed Butt, said at the meeting that the local authority had to look at provision and start a discussion with the school and its stakeholders. He said that they would make sure concerns regarding the staff were taken into consideration. The authoirty had to make best use of its resources and the spnding of the Direct Schools Grant.

It is likely if the trend continues that more primary schools will be affected and that the Planned Admission Number (PAN) will be reduced to take account of the demographic changes.  The new Ark Somerville, to be built in the York House car park in Wembley, has been reduced from 3 forms of entry to two and will not take pupils until the demand from new developments in the Stadium area emerges.